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Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, Jefferson, Iowa, where today, AGAIN, we will be dredging up the subject of the summer art fair.  Specifically, we will peer into the category, dead beat art fairs that live on.  

Oh, wait, surely we can call those of the dead beat sort "pretend" or "wanna-be" or even the s-word.  Schlock! It doesn't seem honest or just, to the subject of art, to call these wanna-be events anything remotely related to creative.  Is it?

Okay.  Sigh.  Here we go.  

Several seasons ago, I was exhibiting at an art fair, about three hours from the family casa.  Saturday had been slightly dampish.  There was a moderate attendance.  I sold some paintings.  Nothing earth shattering.  Sunday dawned the same.  Hmm, do you have to have sun to legally say the day dawned?  No sun.  But some people came.  Not enough people to stop me from noticing the humidity was sky rocketing.  Hey, what else can you say about June in the midwest?

About 3PM, I felt it.  I could see my trusty art-schleping car right over there in the parking lot.  I was supposed to put everything into said trusty car and LEAVE.  What?  Nobody does that.  My artist neighbors looked at me like I was crazy.  Sorry guys, here I go.  About an hour before the art fair's official closing time, I was at the quick shop at the edge of town purchasing my drive-down-the-road-coffee.  I ran back out to the the car, just as it broke loose, pretty much every weather related thing except a tornado.  The wind that came with it didn't seem too far off of tornado speed, however.  As I drove off, I felt sorta bad for my art fair neighbors, who at that very moment, I knew, were valiantly trying to secure-protect-salvage their art and belongings.

So, the question du jour:  is the art fair artist a personality type that is completely oblivious to gut instinct?  The tale I just told you was about should I stay or should I go.  What about gut instinct for those situations where the question is should I go or should I STAY HOME?  Are we such blooming optimists that "bad" doesn't even register on our thought-o-meter?  If we try one more time, will we win?  That "fine art fair" that now juries in things like painted fence post stumps?  Surely there will be great art there THIS year and we will all sell marvelous number of paintings?  

A fellow artist once told me I was suggesting an "artist strike" and that would never happen.  Wrong on the former, true on the latter.

But can't we individually  hone our gut instinct capabilities, and apply them to the art fair venue?  Generous would be the two strike rule: give it two chances.  If you've exhibited twice at a specific art fair, and neither time was worth it, shouldn't your gut instinct be telling you "don't go back?"  Maybe it's time to listen.

And a painting I will be taking to Art On The Prairie - Perry, this  November 10th and 11th.  And yes, I've gone twice, and they've both been good :)

  The Bicycle Pages, acrylic on canvas, 40 x 40 inches, and just put in the website portfolio, where the zoom feature there, is ever so handy for a closer look:  portfolio link

Thanks for stopping by.

Later, Cooper

Greetings,

Welcome to the Cooper studio, where this morning splodges were an impending crisis (mildly)  Wet paint splodged on, that needed to be dry 15 minutes ago.

As I've already stated, it was a mild mannered crisis, but it made me think back to a book I read several years ago, Jeffrey Camp, A Manuel of Pictorial Thought, Paint.  I remember Jeffrey cheering on the viability of dabs and splodges, and because his best examples were of painter's work I've also long admired, I guess it stuck with me.

And I remember thinking I needed to employ more dabs and splodges, so Jeffrey would cheer me on, also.  And then I can think back to after that time, when I harbored concern about all the dabs and splodges I'd added to the work, and was it taking over the work?  Lately comes the concern, over that phrase "unsophisticated color".  On and on it goes.  And I remember that sometimes we have to shut out those folks and just paint.

So maybe the attached painting is a vent, eh??

  Let's Play, an acrylic painting on canvas, 30 x 30 inches.  And yes, it will be in the website portfolio ASAP.  Thanks for stopping by!

Later Cooper